In recent times, blogs have become a more expressive, immediate, instant and easy means of expression and has become more popular than expensive websites which require much more technical skills to operate and maintain. Ordinary internet users find blogs their best medium of expression to reach out to the world.

The course website has been on air since 2008 and has been running efficiently. But now due to some technical difficulties, it has been becoming difficult for me to maintain the site and I find blog its best replacement which I can handle easily and reach out to you instantly and keep the course blog, as I now call it instead of the course website, regularly updated.

However, some of my friends may not be familiar with how a blog works and how best they can access old posts that are not visible on the main page as on the main front page, only a few latest posts are displayed. Therefore, I thought it appropriate to write this small tutorial for the benefit of all.

The Menu Bar:

The blog is driven by a menu bar visible on the very top of the blog with following heading:

Home

PMA Days

Get Together

Special Events

Remembrance

Chapter News

Uncategorized

Accessing the old Posts:

1. The Home button is only to take you back to the main page when visiting a post.2. In case the nostalgia of being in PMA some four decades ago is making you blue, hit the PMA Days button. When you do that a drop down menu will appear as under:

3. The drop down menu gives you a choice to select events, like First Term, Second Term, Ex Yarmuk, Boxing, and going down till the end to the Allied Cadets and Club Activities.

4. Suppose you wish to see the post on Ex Yarmuk, click of Ex Yarmuk on the drop down menu (which fourth from the top).

5. When you move your cursor on Ex Yarmuk, it will change colour - clicking on it, the post link will open as under:

6. Now click on the link title "Ex Yarmuk: Testing toughness and comradeship" and the post will open for you to read and reminisce those tiring yet memorable days at Kot Najibullah.

7. Having read the post, hit the HOME button on top left corner and you will go back to the main page of the blog.

8. However, you can also go to any other section of the blog by clicking on the respective menu bar item. Suppose you wish to read the Chapter News. Click on the Chapter News button and the following drop down menu will appear:

9. On this drop down menu, you will find chapter stations: Islamabad, Lahore, Karachi, Quetta, Canada and Elsewhere. If you wish to read the chapter news of Lahore - take your cursor over Lahore and it will change colour from green to black - and another menu will open in front of it, showing various time periods:

10. Now if you want to see older news, say of period 2009-2013, take your cursor on the second selection corresponding to your choice - and it will turn black.

11. Clicking on it, you will be taken to the page link as under:

12. Now click on the heading: Chapter News - Lahore (2009-2013), the full post will open up as under:

13. Enjoy the post and make another selection following the same procedure above and history will unfold with all its smiles, nostalgia or even sadness when opening the section: Remembrance, which about those friends of ours who have left for their heavenly abode earlier than us.

Following the Course Blog:
I have been requesting many of you through Facebook and E-Mails to please follow the blog. Unfortunately many of you do not understand what following the blog means. Instead many have been responding by writing: Good Job, Well done and ...." Which is not the intention.

In fact following a blog means become part of it by adding your name to the FOLLOWERS list as has already been done by some and can be seen on the top right of the side bar of the blog:

Now hit the blue button saying: "Join this site" - doing so a Pop up Window will open, asking for your G-Mail account as under:

Enter your G-Mail account and hit the Next button on blue bar and you will be guided to next stage to become a follower.

Remember: Only g-mail account holders can become follower (limitation of the application). So if you do not have a g-mail account, make one for the sake of being part of the course blog and become a FOLLOWER. Otherwise how strange would it look to others who would find only a few members of 55 PMA Long Course part of their own course blog.

Thank you for reading till the end - I hope this tutorial was useful in handling the new format of Course Blog - Jalal HB